All posts by admin

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like)
How-To

How to Use a Metronome

Leave a comment

The great thing about learning to play the guitar is the simplicity of the hobby. You won’t need to fill your home with different little gadgets – it is enough to just buy a guitar and get playing.

Even though the hobby is relatively gadget-free, you should learn how to use one little machine: a metronome. This gadget used to look like a pendulum that went tick-tick-tick, but now metronomes are mainly electronic boxes providing you with a beat.

But how do you use a metronome?

Helps You Stick to the Beat

The great thing about using a metronome is how it helps you stay on the beat and play in time. Staying in time is essential for guitar playing, so you should definitely add a metronome to your guitar lessons right from the get go.

Where to Find A Metronome?

Thanks to the Internet, you can now find a metronome online. The online metronomes work just as well as real metronome boxes. On top of this, you can also download different metronome apps to your smartphone.

You can naturally go with a real metronome as well. Music stores sell both the traditional pendulum-like metronomes, as well as the more modern, electronic versions.

Understand Time Signatures

Before you start using a metronome as part of your practice sessions, it is important to understand the concept of time signatures. Time signature tells you the number of beats in a specific rhythm, helping you play the chords in the right tempo.

If you are looking at sheet music or even tabs, the time signature of the song is often announced at the start of the song. The most common time signature is 4/4. You might also see time signatures such as ¾, 9/8 and 5/4.

With electronic metronomes, you just need to know the song’s time signature and set it up in the programme. It will then start providing you the beat with little clicks in your required tempo.

Match the Chord with the Click

You should start with a common time signature such as 4/4. Match a specific chord with the click sound. As you develop, try changing your chords and keep up with the tempo. You can continue moving on to tougher time signatures and increasing the speed you strum the chords. This is a great way to improve your playing speed and it is a great way to warm up your fingers before a playing session.

Make sure you practice basic chords and chord progression with a metronome, but also make it part of your song practice. It’s a great way to measure how your skills are improving.

Don’t Use It Constantly

Even though a metronome is an essential part of guitar practice sessions, you shouldn’t always play with the metronome on. Try to ensure you focus also on your technique instead of just practising the speed with which you play the guitar.

If you find a specific technique difficult, it may help to turn off the metronome and just slowing down the tempo. Once you master the technique, you can test yourself by playing the same thing with the metronome.

As with all guitar practice, mixing and matching different learning styles often gives you the best results!

Music Industry

Is Learning the Blues Essential?

Leave a comment

Blues as a genre of music has been influential in giving birth to many of the other genres we now love and enjoy listening to. You don’t often find guitarists who don’t mention blues as one of their early influencers. So, is learning the blues essential for mastering the guitar?

You Don’t Need the Blues

It is possible to learn to play the guitar without getting yourself deep into the world of blues. Guitar techniques come in many shapes and sizes these days, and you don’t need to get your head around all of them if you don’t want to.

If you are a guitar player and you know the kind of style you’d want to play, it doesn’t necessarily make you any better to learn about all the other styles. In fact, if you are just starting out all the different scales can just make it all a bit too complicated.

On the other hand, for some great guitarists, blues isn’t as challenging as some other genres might be. The legendary Swedish guitarist, Yngwie Malmsten told in his autobiography, he turned to Bach and Vivaldi when he got “frustrated with the simplicity of rock ’n’ roll and blues”. In order to find new depth and inspiration to your playing, you don’t need to look into the world of blues, as there are other genres to use as well in surprising ways.

You Should Go with the Blues

But the other side of the coin is the fact that blues is the father of guitar music. Those early great blues guitarists like Muddy Waters and B. B. King have influenced most of the guitar music you hear today.

Blues scales have influenced genres from rock to metal music. Megadeath’s Dave Mustaine said in a Guitar Player interview how his albums have always been influenced by blues music and how “it all goes back to the blues”.

Furthermore, guitar playing is a lot to do with emotion and blues is definitely all about that raw emotion. For instance, the legendary Jimi Hendrix has said, “Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel”. If you want to learn that raw emotion that goes to some of the best guitar riffs of all time, you must understand the roots of blues.

It isn’t just about rock guitarists either, as even the biggest pop stars of today are influenced by blues tunes. John Mayer, for example, often mixes blues influences to his songs.

Striking a Balance

Although learning blues doesn’t automatically make you a better guitarist, it does open you to all sorts of different genres. If you want to understand the rhythms behind some of the biggest guitar riffs, then a bit of blues knowledge won’t hurt you.

It’s a good idea to venture into the influences your favourite guitar players have had. Read a bit about the history of blues music and learn the blues scale. If you then fall in love with the wonderful world of blues, you can continue your journey deeper into the genre. If you don’t get excited about the music, you can still develop your skills as a guitar player through different routes.

Music Industry

Dealing with an Audience for the First Time

Leave a comment

Most professional musicians will admit they have experienced performance anxiety at some stage of their careers – some continue to feel nervous even after they’ve been playing for years! But undoubtedly the first time you perform in front of an audience is one of the most nerve-wracking experiences you’ll have to deal with. The good news is there are ways to make the experience just a bit more bearable and to ensure you enjoy the moment.

Focus on the Moment

The most important thing is to relax and stop overthinking the situation. If you find yourself just wondering what the audience is doing or how they are reacting, you’ll get more nervous and forget to focus on the thing, which is playing.

If even the thought of getting on stage makes your palms sweat, it may be a good idea to try some simple relaxation techniques. Try to visualise the gig before it happens, think what you’ll do and how everything will go according to plan. Learn to breathe even when you feel panicky, to ensure you don’t start hyperventilating.

When you are finally on stage, don’t look around and wonder about the audience. Find that calm place in your mind and just focus on playing your instrument. Worry about the audience reactions later!

Don’t Try to Pretend

Don’t create a persona for yourself that you feel uncomfortable with, as being on stage exposes you. This doesn’t of course mean that you can’t add whacky costumes and makeup styles, but only do it if your music requires it. Don’t try to copy other musicians because you need to feel comfortable and relaxed on stage.

It’s best to forget about pre-planning a specific on stage routine. Go with the flow and do the things that make you feel good, not the things you expect people want you to do. If you aren’t the kind of guitar player that can comfortably play, dance around, and jump on top of speakers, then don’t do it.

Don’t Create a Negative Image

If you step on that stage for the first time thinking the audience is going to hate you, you are going to screw it up for yourself. No one ever goes to see a gig hoping the artist to perform badly, so if you look and sound confident and you provide the audience an energetic and enjoyable experience, they are going to love you.

You won’t ever be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if the audience doesn’t know what to expect yet, but it doesn’t mean you won’t be given a chance. So be yourself, do what you do best and trust the audience to give you a chance!

Come Prepared

Finally, you can’t go on stage if you don’t trust your skills 100%. If you don’t feel prepared enough, practice a bit more, fine-tune your songs and only get on that stage when you know you are ready to rock.

Don’t be too much of a perfectionist though, as we can sometimes be our own worst critics. You can’t escape the first gig forever, but just make sure you don’t try to push for it too early either. Perhaps try performing to a small group of people first to test the waters before you take control of the bigger stages.

Guitar Tips

How to be a Fast Learner with Your Guitar

Leave a comment

We humans tend to be a bit impatient. We don’t like things to take forever and that is certainly true for learning to play guitar. If you are a bit impatient, you don’t want to spend three weeks just learning the chord progression. But is there a way to speed up learning guitar? The good news is yes – you can make little changes to the way you practice and speed up your learning.

Play for 5 Minutes Every Day

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you think you need to play for 30 minutes or for an hour every day. But the truth is that it isn’t the length of your practice sessions, it’s the quality of them. Spending five minutes going over chords can be much more educational than spending an hour trying to stay focused.

Furthermore, you put yourself under a lot of pressure if you feel like you need to play for 30 minutes every day. Playing sessions will become a must-do, which will take all the joy out from playing and when there’s no joy, there’s no progress.

Instead, play for just five minutes every day. Set a timer for five minutes; pick up that guitar and practice. After your timer goes off you can continue if you feel like it or stop – either way you’ve played for a bit and improved your skills!

Analyse Your Playing and Progress

You should also start paying more attention to your playing and the progress you make. Knowing your problem areas and seeing the progress in writing can boost your confidence and help you stay on the right course.

Film yourself playing and focus on the mistakes you make. What is causing the problems? Is it your posture or the way you hold the guitar? Are specific chords just too difficult? Understanding the mistakes you make and the reasons behind them will boost your progress because you are more able to focus on fixing the issues.

You should also track your progress. For example, use a metronome to measure how quick you can play specific notes. Gradually increase the tempo and write down when you feel you have mastered a specific speed.

Furthermore, if you start learning a new song, write down when you start and each step with the progress you make. This way you can figure out which parts you had to spend more time learning and spend more time on those when you start a new song.

Let Others See Your Progress

Sometimes it’s easy to stop making progress when you are the only one aware of the development. But if you go public with your playing, you’ll have more of that healthy pressure to improve your skill set.

You can either start posting videos on Youtube or even create a music blog. Not only does this give you more incentive to practice, you might also get valuable tips from other people. It’s also a great way to connect with others who are as passionate about music as you are!

Keeping track of your progress will help you focus on the tougher parts and stop you from wasting time going after the bits you already know. Make sure you challenge yourself with guitar lessons, tougher songs and different genres – you’ll boost your skills in no time!

Guitar Tips

How to Avoid Your Guitar Boring You

Leave a comment

Even the biggest fan of guitar music can occasionally end up feeling bored while playing the instrument. In order to progress, you need to play almost every day and go through the same things repeatedly. This will naturally feel repetitive very quickly and you might find tons of other more fun things to do.

But skipping practice can easily get you off the rails and halt your progress. Next time you are feeling bored when playing guitar try these simple tips.

guitar
Flickr.com / mhx

Cut Down Your Lessons

If you are trying to play an hour every day, it might be the length of your lesson that is making you feel bored. If you are the kind of person that gets bored easily and if focusing on one thing seems difficult to you, practice in smaller sessions instead.

Try playing for 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes right after you get home from work or school and another 15 minutes in the evening before you go to bed. You might even end up playing for longer because you don’t feel like you must play for that long in the first place!

Create Your Practice Lesson Timeline In Advance

You should also have a clear idea what it is you want to do during your play session. If you pick up your guitar and start thinking what song to play, you might easily feel like every song is a boring prospect. But just have a list at hand and start playing. Don’t think too hard whether you are in the mood for that song or not, just play it.

Find the Right Surroundings

Make your learning sessions a bit more fun by focusing on your surroundings. Is there perhaps a specific spot in the house you enjoy spending time in? Perhaps you are a massive coffee or tea lover and a cup of this hot nectar would make your sessions feel just a bit more fun.

Make sure you also try different things, play along to backing tracks, take online guitar lessons, and practice improvisation. Rewarding yourself after a successful lesson with a movie afterwards, for instance, may also help you find practice more exciting.

Play with Others

If you always play on your own, then it isn’t any wonder boredom might kick in. If you have friends who play an instrument, then organise jamming sessions with them to mix things up a bit. Seeing other people be enthusiastic about playing can help you feel more excited again as well.

Even if you don’t have friends that are into music, you can always go online and connect with other music lovers there. Talk in online forums and have Skype sessions with other guitarist to exchange tips and tricks.

Find a Balance Between Easy and Challenging Things

If you are just learning the ropes you might feel bored when you hit the brick wall and realise playing guitar isn’t as easy as it looks. At the same time, if you just play the songs you know time after time you won’t find playing challenging and it can bore you. Therefore, you need to strike a balance between the easy stuff and the more difficult things.

Occasionally practice easy songs that are just simple to play and make you feel happy. But remember to also add those challenging songs and bits of theory to make sure you are constantly learning something new.

If you feel frustrated in your playing, then step back for a second and take your mind off from playing altogether. After a short break, you’ll feel more energised to continue your guitar lessons!